Experienced Chemistry Consultant and Expert Witness in Criminal Drug Cases — And Other Hearings
As an expert chemist assisting legal cases, Dr. Brown helps public defenders get better results for their clients in drug cases. His services can be divided into 3 categories:
Reviewing chemical evidence in drug cases for potential errors. Dr. Brown has reviewed chemical evidence in over 50 cases involving clandestine drug manufacture and possession of drugs such as meth, amphetamine, MDMA, LSD, benzodiazepines and synthetic cannabinoids. Errors are common in these cases and may include errors in chemical processes and analysis, faulty and/or untested assumptions by forensic chemists, false positives, chain of custody errors, and other issues.
Advising defense attorneys about the intersection of science and the law: helping them understand what the evidence means for their case and what to do next, including what tests they should run and how.
Producing written summaries and/or serving as a chemistry expert witness to explain specialized topics to a judge or jury. Dr. Brown has assisted legal cases as a chemistry expert witness for more than 25 years.
Dr. Brown can provide the following forms of scientific assistance to attorneys handling drug cases:
conduct full review and expert critique of chemical analyses previously performed by forensic laboratories on alleged drug and precursor samples
provide experienced evaluation of the following types of chemical evidence in drug cases: methamphetamine; ephedrine and pseudoephedrine; cathinones such as MDPV (sometimes referred to as “bath salts”); amphetamine; MDMA (ecstasy); LSD; heroin; morphine; barbiturates; cocaine; crack cocaine; synthetic cannabinoids; and precursor chemicals
define areas where false positives and analytical errors may have occurred in a client's case
evaluate drug detection analysis techniques to discover where cross-contamination of drug sample evidence in a client’s case by evidence from other ongoing cases could have occurred
assess "chain of custody" errors in drug cases
check if chemical analyses were performed on all relevant evidence samples in a case; if no chemical analysis was performed on an evidence sample then there can be no chemical proof asserted that the evidence sample comprised an alleged substance
produce complete written summary of case findings to clients and attorneys if requested
testify in state or federal court regarding analytical errors and faulty assumptions made by forensic chemists during their chemical analyses of evidence samples